An email from Facebook about email changes? Be careful

It popped into my mailbox quietly at 12:49 AM and I made note of it only because the subject line said "Facebook will be sending you less email." Relieved at the thought of receiving less email in any way, shape or fashion, I opened the email to find what looked like an email from Facebook. Then I thought: "Facebook NEVER sends me an email when they make a change" and I looked at it more closely.

The body of the message has a link saying I could click to change the email settings back to the way they were. That link could go to an authentic-looking login screen (I didn't click to find out) and once you type in your Facebook account info it could capture that info so it can be used for devious and criminal endeavors.

Another clue? I went to the official Facebook blog to find no mention of any email system changes. The Facebook folks may not email us or trumpet interface changes directly to our accounts, but they do post things regularly on the blog. It's a good thing to check when you want to know what's going on. There's also an excellent help centre page about receiving emails from Facebook where you can get answers to a lot of questions.

So be careful what you open and click on. Mean people can be waiting on the other end of your click and they will gladly take your Facebook login to gain access to your account and any credit cards you might have linked there. If it looks in any way suspicious just stop and go to the web site that you know to be authentic. From there you can contact someone to ask about the email you received to see if it's legitimate.

This may be a legitimate email from Facebook. Comparing the email header to headers in notification emails I get from them, it looks the same. Because Facebook doesn't typically send out emails like this, all I'm saying is be careful.

About this blog

Living in a convenient and connected world means keeping up to date on the latest technology and gadgets. To help you sort out what's worth exploring for your own tech needs, we'll give you a one-stop guide to some of the newest products on the market — smartphones, cameras, video games, automotive products, household gadgets and more. In other words, the cool stuff.